So lately, people in the cat comms I watch have had problems with their cats needing their anal glands expressed.

What I'm trying to figure out is why this seems like an epidemic of care gone wrong.Because I've never had any of my cats need to get their anal glands expressed.

WTF? Is this more common than I thought? Did I just miss the signs on my own cats? (Although scooting and dingleberries are pretty hard to miss...and when my cats have had it, it was due to other things, like worms (ew) or having found and ingested one of my own Hairs of Doom, thereby making the wonderful 'poo on a string'...

So, guys, did you ever have to squeeze foul-smelling marking musk out of your own cats' arses?

So anyway, there's this concern going around that bees are disappearing. No one knows where they're going, what's causing it, etc. We're just starting to run out of bees.

So, seeing them hang out on the bushes outside my apartment windows is just downright odd. The bushes don't have any flowers, that I can tell, and when the bees are there, they seem to land, scrurry across a leaf or down an inside branch. They might even stop for a moment, and then take off, hover, and do it all over again about three inches down.

And this isn't just one or two 'confused' bees, mind you. I can easily count twenty at any given time. I've only seen one that seemed to have put something in the pollen sack on its leg, but the rest? It's like they're looking. But not finding. And they're doing this all day long.

I'm wondering if this is the cause; are they not finding the right kind of 'food'...or maybe none at all? Can they no longer tell the difference? Or are they actually finding what they need and I'm just not seeing it?

Whatever is going on, it's odd having my own little crop of bees outside the window.

No, wait. She keeps creeping over to the porch door, pushing aside the slats, watching something outside for maybe three seconds, and then jumping back and dashing away from the window as fast and as low to the ground as she can.

From what I can tell, there is absolutely nothing outside that should be making her do that.

O.o

Nevermind. She was doing it again as I typed this, and this time I heard a thump at the glass, so I went over and turned the porchlight on.

It's a toad trying to get in for some reason.

ETA: Annnnd twenty minutes later and Mr Toad is still jumping at the glass. O.o (and yes, I went and researched toads...).

Outdoor cats. I don't agree with the concept, just because of all the possible things that could go wrong that would guarantee Kitty never makes it home again, or if s/he does, could be in some pretty nasty shape.

That doesn't mean though, that I'll get on my soap-box and tell owners who do let Kitty outside not to do that. It's not a fight worth having, and I'd be hypocritical for getting into one over it because when I was younger, I did have indoor/outdoor cats. What changed my own mind was exactly the scenario mentioned above; Tass never came home one night, and it's hard to tell if he was picked up by someone else (no 'found' posters ever appeared), got hit by a car (Never saw a corpse on the side of the road that looked like him), or got eaten by a coyote or hawk (good luck finding the remains if that happened). So, no outdoor cats for me.

Since I took Foot in, I've seen two more cats outside--one gray, one white, both well fed. In fact, as of today, I've seen the gray a total of five times. He's a handsome boy, friendly as hell (he made a beeline for the door when I opened it a few minutes ago, and would have got in if I hadn't reacted quickly), sleek fur, well-muscled and groomed. No doubt whatsoever that he has an owner somewhere.

He's also intact, which means there's a good chance he was the daddy of the kittens Foot didn't have, and probably of many others that I'll never see.

I will never lecture someone on the whole indoor/outdoor issue.

But I'm ready to beat the hell out of the irresponsible human who's letting their intact Tom run around.

And I wasn't in one of the areas that has the really bad tornados last evening. Although I was in one of the areas that lost power in Texas. The hospital got it back at 11:30, the complex where I live did not (but the partment itself is still cool, and I made sure Foot had plenty of fresh water for the next three hours before I came back to work).

Foot was friendly and playful this morning, but she also started up early with the wake-up calls (3:30 instead of 4:30), and wanted comforting, not food. And once we were officially up, she let me feed her, and she would come up to me, but attempts at petting were met with bounding away on her part. Maybe she felt this happening...

Mind you, it'll probably be a slushy, ugly mess by morning, and I, little Ms. Desert Rat When She Was Learning To Drive, will have to drive to work in it, but right now, it is absolutely awesomely gorgeous. :)

Hellacious wind gusts, and a cold front bearing down on us from the north west (it's 70 degrees out right now--the temp on the other side of the front is in the 30's).

Fun times. At least I'll be sure to hear the air sirens, since they're only 500 yards away at the traffic light XD. (Now watch me do my usual trick of incorporating the noise into whatever dream I'm having at the time and never wake up if they happen to go off).

So, along with the resident anole, I apparently have earned a resident jumping spider. I was informed of this great event when the little guy came springing out of the depths of one of my computer desk shelves and landed on the CD rack...and then the printer-scanner...and then one of the speakers...and...well you get the idea.

Now, normally, a spider in the house (especially one that has the termidity to jump at me) is either due for a rude eviction, or, sadly, if there is no cooperation from said arachnid, a quick, apology-filled death. They bite, you see. It's Texas.

But...this was a little itty bitty tiny guy, all black with turqouise tipped mandibles and legs and eyes.

And he was cute.

And, okay, he looked like the jumping spiders I played with back in New Jersey way back when...where we would wave and scuttle at each other and...

Okay. You'd have to get jumping spiders to understand.

Anyhow, so I watched the little guy until he finally scuttled off out of sight, and was happy do to so. I like the jumpers. And he won't bite (me, at least), and I have fruit gnats from the bananas...and I know he'll catch and eat those.

The resident anole
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good pic of his face.

This little dude has been showing up everyday (except when it rains) between two and four pm and hangs out on the rail until he either gets bored, or finds something tasty in the bushes below to catch.

It's interesting to note that anoles (lizards in general) represent dreams, dreaming, and what you can bring back with you from them to use in the real world. Maybe my resident 'wild pet' can help with my creative endeavors. *g*

ETA Sidenote: for those of you who care (not many, I know, but I gotta geek at you all)

Vampires: Los Muertos is playing on SciFi at 12 noon central time. So, if you really want to try and catch Jon-as-a-vampire-hunter, there you go. Enjoy.